Journals R6 Release Successfully Installed

Hi, folks -- the Journals R6 Release was successfully launched this morning during the install window (4-6AM ET).

The install went pretty smoothly (or so they tell me -- I was asleep), though there are still some problems, including open issues with adding photos from Hometown and AOL Pictures/YGP for UK users.

The tech folks are working on this one -- in the meantime, you can still add photos via the Web-based File Manager (here's my step-by-step instructions on adding photos with File Manager).

If you encounter any problems with Journals, please let me know in the comments and I'll make sure the tech folks see your reports.

I previously wrote about the features in R6; in summary:

* The most visible change for US users is the new AOL Journals header with the integrated Journals Search box.

It works pretty well, though over at blogger John's By The Way..., Journaler Teeisme57 notes that the search results also pick up keywords from the titles of the Journal entries that show up in the right sidebar navigation.

Also in the comments, Journaler Deslily isn't keen on the extra vertical space added by the integrated Search box. Maybe in a future release we can make the Search box  appear/disappear using Ajax or something.

On an FYI, I will note that "Search This Journal" won't return anything on a Private Journal, which is a feature (or at least works as designed), not a flaw (since the content of your Private Journals is not spidered by the search crawler).

* You can now use HTML Table Tags in your entry (though AOLer Josephmaaz is evidently not a fan of this practice [scroll to the comments]) -- using tables to force specific layouts is kind of a hack -- it's one those silly things we users do to make things look pretty, instead of paying attention to official specifications and definitions.

He also has some other suggestions for Journals in his comments, which are quite long.

* The HTML Whitelist has been updated (a whitelist is an "allowed" list, versus a blacklist, which is a "disallowed" list); AOL Journals is now allowing the use of Javascript to enable certain specific features by third-party providers (you and AOL are the first two parties -- a third party is someone else).

In order to use these third-party features, you will need to visit their sites, read their documentation, register (if needed), then snag the bit of Javascript they give you and include it in your entry or All About Me area (it depends on what you're trying to do).

I will need to try all these out myself in my blog and do a more detailed post about this (though you'll still need to do your research), but for right now, the features you can use include:

• BlogMap
• Del.icio.us Tag Cloud & Linkroll
• StatCounter
• SiteMeter
• Tailrank
• Technorati Embed

We're trying to get a sampling of the key functionalities that people are interested in; the whitelist should be expanded with each release.

In addition to the Javascript side of the whitelist, we've also added to the list of sites you can include in an IFRAME; the current list is:

• Flickr
• Gabbly
• Technorati Favorites

IFRAMEs are kind of an advanced HTML, so if you don't know what all this means, don't worry about it. With this and the Javascript stuff, the team is working on ways to make it easier integrating content from other sites into your Journal.

* Tagging Beta: The tagging beta test now works for Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, so please play around with it. Here's my entry where I explain about how to use the tagging test.

* International Journals Status: As noted, banner ads have been added to the tops of AOL Canada and Mexico Journals, though this is still being looked at.

Also, International Journals have finally gotten the Alerts length fix -- a while back, it was determined that AOL Journals was sending too much information to the AOL Alerts system for new entry and new comment alerts.

If the length of your entry or comment was over Alerts's limit, the Alert would break in nasty ways (either failing to deliver orgoing to the wrong template).

With the Alerts length fix, delivery of new entry and new comment alerts should be much better.

In terms of features, International Journals are still behind US Journals; International Journalers will have gotten the updates to the HTML whitelist and table tags, but that's pretty much it from this release.

****************************
I still need to get the status of a few things (including the Moblogging beta), and I'll be updating the layout of the  Journals main page later today, but I wanted to get this post out now.

As noted, please leave comments with problem reports, whitelist suggestions and other feedback.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status, Journals R6, AOL Journals Beta